"All this region is very level and full of forests, vines and butternut trees. No Christian has ever visited this land and we had all the misery of the world trying to paddle the river upstream." Samuel de Champlain

On April 19, (Lynn) Henning became one of the 2010 winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, sometimes called the Green Nobel, the largest prize in the world given to grass-roots environmentalists.

How she became a self-taught bane to local CAFOs (concentrated animal-feeding operations) is a story 10 years in the making. This is the first time the $150,000 prize has been awarded to someone battling CAFOs, Ms. Rominger says. The jury was very concerned about "the water and air pollution that comes from these factory farms and how they are making people sick," she says.

A former sign painter, she has spent much of her life helping her husband on their 80-acre farm in Clayton, a small town in south-central Michigan. "We lived the American dream until the CAFOs came to town," Henning says. Today, 20,000 cows are within a 10-mile radius of her home, she says, and another 20,000 hogs cycle through on an annual basis. (Before the CAFOs, there were about 500 animals in the same area, she says.)

Waste from one cow equals that produced by 23 humans. That waste (along with whatever else is on the barn floor) is washed into lagoons that hold millions of gallons, where it is stored for months before being spread on fields. The smell, even in early March, is nearly overpowering. "It's industrial agriculture using family farms as a disguise," Henning says. "Manure is no longer manure – it's toxic waste." And it needs to be treated as such, she says, not spread untreated on fields or allowed to wash into local water sources.

This is not what most Americans think of as farming. "They think of a little red barn. They don't think of 5 million gallons of manure – not the 6,000 pigs that never see the light of day," says Dave Maturin, a county commissioner and real estate appraiser. He cites instances of Michigan homes losing 30 to 60 percent of their value after a CAFO moved in. In some cases, he says, homeowners can't sell at any price.

For Henning, keeping her windows open in summer isn't really an option any more, she says. She can't hang laundry on the line or sit outside without checking which way the wind is blowing – or leave her front door open. Eating outside is largely a thing of the past. "I used to love spring," Henning says. Now, "I hate spring." Henning became concerned about CAFOs a decade ago, after a neighbor accused her in a grocery store of filing a complaint against a local CAFO operator. She hadn't, but her curiosity was piqued. She started filing federal Freedom of Information Act requests, and as she learned more she became more alarmed. Then in 2003, her in-laws, who had farmed in Clayton their whole lives, were diagnosed with hydrogen-sulfide poisoning. Their doctor said it was his opinion that the poisoning came from the local cow husbandry operations and manure lagoons.

In 2000, Henning and other local residents founded a group, ECCSCM (Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan), to monitor the CAFOs. In 2005, Henning was hired as a water sentinel for the Sierra Club. "We could either fight or pack up," she says. "We've been here too long to leave." With the help of Light Hawk, a volunteer group of pilots, ECCSCM has taken aerial photos of CAFOs since 2001. The flights have led to 1,077 reported violations. The state of Michigan has collected more than $1.4 million in fines from CAFOs in south-central Michigan. In 2008, State Line hog farm was shut down after ECCSCM found that the surrounding air quality had up to 9 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide. "Ten parts will cause unconsciousness," Henning says dryly.

Despite these victories, Henning says not enough has changed. "I think it's going to get worse before it gets better," she says.

The impact of Henning's prize is "going to be exponential," says John Klein, a cofounder of ECCSCM who takes the aerial photos. Some of the prize money will be used to buy an air-quality monitor. "Lynn has done this in an amazing way," says Anne Woiwode, state director of the Sierra Club. "She just has always been there quietly pursuing, taking notes, asking questions, and learning how to do what needs to be done, whatever it is." Henning frequently files complaints on behalf of other residents so that they can remain anonymous, Ms. Woiwode says. "She's taken on the role of protector, because she knows how bad it is, and she doesn't want other people to have to go through that."

Henning matter-of-factly recounts a list of harassments and lawsuits against her that stretches back for years: Being chased by manure tankers down the road; having dead animals left in her driveway and car; and having her mailbox blown up. On Dec. 30, someone shot out the window of her granddaughter's bedroom with buckshot. The 2-year-old was in the room at the time.

Environmentalists are sometimes accused of being antifarming, but Henning says she's different. "They have a hard time with me because I am a farmer," she says. "I drive a tractor.""

Technological advances that have unlocked natural gas from shale rock deep beneath the surface have outpaced advances in water waste disposal, meaning that gas drilling could begin in New York state before a waste disposal program is in place. "There is a shortage of treatment facilities that can handle this very salty water, so that's going to become a bit of a bottleneck for the industry when they do start issuing drilling permits," said hydrogeologist John Conrad, head of the environmental consulting firm Conrad Geoscience Corp.

But millions of gallons of water are needed for each shale gas well, leaving drillers to deal with the tainted waste water. Some companies such as Chesapeake Energy (CHK.N) have employed a "closed-loop" system that reuses water, which experts and environmental critics see as part of the solution. In hydraulic fracturing, millions of gallons of water are mixed with sand and diluted chemicals and blasted into shale rock at a pressure high enough to break the rock and free the trapped methane gas.

Environmentalists and people living near drilling operations worry that the drilling process might contaminate ground water, even when heavily diluted. They have also raised concerns about benzene, arsenic and low-level radioactive matter coming up from the shale. Around a third of the millions of gallons of water used in fracturing comes back to the surface where it is either reused, stored on site or trucked to treatment plants.

Conrad said companies that can build crystallizer plants -- specialized waste treatment plants that distill salt out of waste water -- are unwilling to make an investment in New York until the state begins issuing drilling permits. "The investment in these treatment plants won't happen until there's somewhat of a guarantee of a return," Conrad said. Chesapeake has begun using a closed-loop system in its wells in neighboring Pennsylvania -- a technique that limits fracturing fluid contact with the environment and allows the backflow water to be reused. The company says it plans to use that system in all of its wells in New York. Backflow water can be reused up to 12 times without the need for treatment, Conrad said. It makes economic sense for the industry because it limits the costs of moving the waste off site and reduces the amount of water the company needs for its next drilling operation.

In Pennsylvania, where the industry is rushing to exploit the massive Marcellus shale formation, critics say there isn't enough capacity to remove toxic chemicals from waste water. As a result, some waste gets pumped into rivers and creeks with little or no treatment, critics say. Some residents have accused tank trucks of dumping waste water on rural roads.

"Without adequate laws in place, it's our experience at Riverkeeper that midnight dumping will be an absolute certainty. You see it all the time," said James Simpson, a staff attorney at environmental group Riverkeeper. Another option is to inject waste into wells that are no longer in use. While this process is common in Gulf Coast drilling sites, geologists say it is less viable in the U.S. Northeast.

Earlier this month, Chesapeake withdrew an application to store waste in Pulteney, in New York's Finger Lake region, after community groups protested the plan. "I've been consistent in my stance that it's more important to get it right than to get it fast," Congressman Eric Massa, who opposed the application, said in a statement. "Ultimately if we don't stake the necessary steps to protect our land and our water for the next generation, then we have nothing."

Quebec wants to build its nascent natural-gas industry by crafting a new law to make it easier for producers to operate in the province, Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau said. Ms. Normandeau plans to introduce legislation in the fourth quarter to regulate oil and gas production, she said in an interview in Montreal. While Quebec doesn’t yet produce oil or gas commercially, companies such as Talisman Energy Inc., Forest Oil Corp. and Questerre Energy Corp. have begun exploring in the province.Exploration for hydrocarbons is so new in Canada’s second-most populous province that there is no law specifically designed to govern oil and gas operations. Drillers are regulated by a hodgepodge of six laws, including the Mining Act and Forest Law. “We want to create a fiscal and legal framework that can make a company decide to invest in Quebec rather than Pennsylvania,” said Ms. Normandeau, who also is the province’s deputy premier. Normandeau declined to give details of the regulatory changes she is considering. “We will not do this at the expense of the environment,” she said. Provincial legislators would have to vote to approve the new law.

Edward Kallio, director of gas consulting at Ziff Energy Group in Calgary, said Quebec may hold about one-tenth as much gas as the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and Texas, which the U.S. Department of Energy estimated last year holds about 251 trillion cubic feet of gas in shale-rock formations. “It’s relatively small, but it’s a nice resource to have on your doorstep,” said Mr. Kallio, who doesn’t expect production in the province to start before 2015. Talisman, which is exploring a formation known as the Utica Shale in the St. Lawrence River valley, has plans to test four horizontal pilot wells in Quebec this year.

Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique, a provincial environmental group, wants Quebec to halt shale gas exploration, not expand it, until the impact on the environment can be assessed. André Bélisle, the group’s president, said his association’s concerns include the possibility of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic chemical compound contained in natural gas, being released into the air. “The government is telling us to trust them, but we have real reasons to be worried by shale gas,” Mr. Bélisle said in a telephone interview."

No one is accepting responsibility for a diesel spill that's costing Pickering taxpayers thousands of dollars while damaging a creek that leads to Frenchman's Bay. A hazmat crew hired by the City has been hard at work since April 3, cleaning up a diesel spill that continues to spew into a creek that begins east of the Pickering GO station and runs into Krosno Creek before it finally meets Frenchman's Bay.

Pickering officials immediately looked to the CN trail derailment of March 30, when three locomotives and nine freight cars jumped the tracks just west of the Pickering GO station, as a possible source of the spill. CN spokesman Frank Binder confirmed 40 litres of diesel fuel did leak from one of the locomotives as a result of the derailment, but said CN's investigation shows the creek situation has nothing to do with last Tuesday's situation. Although the hazmat crew contracted out by the City, DirectLine Environment Corp., continues to soak up the diesel by using berms running from the beginning of the creek all the way down to Frenchman's Bay, damage has already been done, said site coordinator Shane Dickson. "Some of it did escape into the lake," he said.

Mr. Dickson says it only takes a small amount of diesel to pollute a body of water. He also claims he saw diesel fuel in six of the catch basins on what he believes was CN property when DirectLine was helping with the derailment clean-up. He noted the timeliness was strangely coincidental. "It seems a very odd coincidence that a train derailed just last week and now we're here working on this," he said, adding he didn't want to point fingers.

Mr. Binder denied the claim, and said CN's environmental team, along with an independent environmental firm, checked all six catch basins a number of times and found no diesel originally. However, on Wednesday morning, diesel fuel was found in one catch basin on the boundary of CN and GO Transit property by CN's environmental team.

Mr. Dickson hopes to get the creek cleaned up soon. "It's not good for any of the wildlife," he said. "It will kill the fish. It will kill the wildlife, and insect life," adding it's possible plants will survive.

Since no one's taking the fall, Pickering is footing the bill for the clean-up, something the City only budgets $25,000 for per year, which this clean-up could easily reach."

The Mayor was later able to meet with CN authorities and was assured that if it is proven that CN is responsible for the contamination of the creek, "The Canadian National Rail Company is willing to reimburse all reasonable costs of the derailment that occurred in Pickering a couple of weeks ago": http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/152573

If you eat meat, the odds are high that you've enjoyed a meal made from an animal raised on a factory farm (also known as a CAFO). According to the USDA, 2% of U.S. livestock facilities raise an estimated 40% of all farm animals. This means that pigs, chickens and cows are concentrated in a small number of very large farms. But even if you're a vegetarian, the health and environmental repercussions of these facilities may affect you. In his book Animal Factory, journalist David Kirby explores the problems of factory farms, from untreated animal waste to polluted waterways. Kirby talks to TIME about large-scale industrial farming, the lack of government oversight and the terrible fate of a North Carolina river.

The farmers typically don't own the animals — the companies do. It's almost like a sharecropping system. The company tells them exactly how to build the farm, what to grow and what to feed. They manage everything right down to what temperature the barn should be and what day the animals are going to be picked up for slaughter.

We collectively refer to these facilities as factory farms, but that's not an official name. The government designation is CAFO, which stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. Basically, it's any farm that has 1,000 animal units or more. A beef cow is an animal unit. These animals are kept in pens their entire lives. They're never outside. They never breathe fresh air. They never see the sun.

You're often no longer feeding animals what they're genetically designed to eat. CAFO cows eat a diet of milled grains, corn and soybeans, when they are supposed to eat grass. The food isn't natural because they very often put growth hormones and antibiotics in it. That becomes a problem when you put that manure on the ground.

There are simply too many animals in too small of a place. In a traditional farm, a sustainable farm, you grow both crops and animals. There is a pasture, and you have a certain number of animals per acre. But when you have 2,000 cows per acre instead of two, you have a problem. You can't fit them in a pasture — you fit them in a building. You can't grow enough crops to feed them — you have to ship in their feed. You don't have enough land to absorb their waste. It has nowhere to go.

The manure is liquefied. It gets flushed out into an open lagoon, where it is stored until farmers can use it on what few crops they do grow. There's just so much of it, though. I've seen it sprayed into waterways and creeks. These lagoons filled with waste have been known to seep, leak, rupture and overtop. This stuff is untreated, by the way. We would never allow big, open cesspools of untreated human waste to just sit out on the ground near people's homes and schools. And yet because it's agriculture, the rules are different.

Sometimes you can even see the waste runoff going directly going into the water. Other times they're out there spraying night and day because nobody is watching them. You can't see this from the road. There are very few inspectors, and they're not going to go out there and monitor everyone.

A lot of the laws are on the state and county level, so it depends on the political will and political culture of the individual state. If you try to pass pollution standards, the industry complains that they're already too heavily regulated. They claim that if you force them to reduce how much they pollute, they're not going to be able to operate. They're essentially saying they can only make money by polluting and breaking the law. That should be unacceptable to everybody."

If the pig facilities, revealed to the public in Richelieu in 2005 and up and running now, are at full production, the Ferme Notre-Dame in Richelieu and its slurry spreading near the Richelieu River is almost up to the US CAFO criteria. In Quebec, the "companies" that own these "farms" in full or in part are called integrators, like F. Ménard or the Robitaille Group. Meaning that even if this production is heavily subsidized and financially supported by all government levels, the economic returns are not always good, so often the individual farmer and his family may fold, but the integrator will buy up what's not theirs already, and keep the production going.

Cornell University community members are deeply suspicious of the effects of hydrofracturing and want to see the university clearly state stipulations for potential drilling on university-owned lands. Many said they want to see standards laid out to determine the circumstances under which the university would agree to lease land to drill for gas using hydrofracturing, also known as fracking.

Sandy Podulka, a staff member at the Lab of Ornithology, said she would like to see a full economic report showing the surrounding area would be better off, a study to determine whether incidences of cancer and other diseases are increased in areas where drilling occurs, and an analysis of the effect on local water sources before any talk of leasing lands. "Because Cornell owns 4 percent of the land in Tompkins County, whether or not it leases will have a huge effect on whether drilling comes here at all," Podulka said. "(Gas companies) won't drill just a few wells if drilling proceeds -- it will only proceed intensely."

Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Bob Howerth said his requirements would include a specification that Cornell retain control over all sites and operations; require full disclosure of all substances used in fracking and retain veto power over any chemical; monitor the substances and specify which may be used; ensure that waste be adequately treated and contained at all times; and make sure water comes from an acceptable source which does not cause environmental damage or harm to others.

Other speakers expressed concern about air, noise and water pollution; increased traffic; overloading the existing infrastructure; the implications of gas storage; the effect on the quality of life in the region, which several said is a large drawing point for top students and faculty; and the social consequences of drilling.

"It will pit neighbor against neighbor, and there will be considerable lawsuits," said physics professor Cyrus Umrigar."

Interesting for me to observe that people from all over, be them scholars, workers or ordinary citizens, they all worry about the same things when fracking moves into their neighborhood.

Japanese doctor, and world-renowned mercury poisoning specialist Dr. Masazumi Harada made a final presentation about mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows and Whitedog First Nations at the Lakeside Inn in Kenora March 27.

Dr. Harada has been studying mercury poisoning and the effects it has had on the people in both Grassy Narrows and Whitedog since the 1970s. Harada is retiring this year, but he made one last trip to both communities to do further mercury testing March 25 and 26 in Grassy Narrows and March 28 and 29 in Whitedog. He also presented his report, the Long-term Study on the Effects of Mercury Contamination on Two Indigenous Communities in Canada. Harada’s report concludes that both communities have been effected by mercury contamination and poisoning from the river systems surrounding the communities.

“I haven’t had a chance to examine all the residents, but from the residents that I have examined, 60 to 80 per cent of them have shown signs of mercury contamination,” Harada said through his translator. The contamination levels in the water are decreasing, Harada said, but it is unknown when the water will be safe again. His report said that because the mercury levels in the water are lower now, no new cases of mercury contamination should be expected as long as people don’t eat the fish.“But, people still continue to eat the fish here,” Harada said. “So, it is hard to tell when the communities will recover from the effects of the mercury poisoning of the river systems.”

Harada hopes his study will inspire people to advocate to their government to fully examine the situation of mercury contamination and have the results of the examinations reflected in their government’s policies and politics. Also, he hopes the study will create solidarity and cooperation among communities that have been affected by mercury contamination on a worldwide level.

Judy Da Silva, a Grassy Narrows band member, said things need to be made right with the community regarding the mercury poisoning, including continued protection from resource development. “We must stop the mills from destroying our forests, our water, and our culture for the survival of all people,” Da Silva said. “The forests and waters of Grassy Narrows must be placed under the protection of our own people so that we can heal and recover what we have lost for our children.”"

Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd, trying to forestall a regulatory crackdown that would cut natural-gas drilling, are developing ways to eliminate the need for chemicals that may taint water supplies near wells. At risk is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that unlocked gas deposits in shale formations and drove gains in U.S. production of the fuel. Proposed regulations might slow drilling and add $3bn a year in costs, a government study found. As one solution, energy companies are researching ways to kill bacteria in fracturing fluids without using harmful chemicals called biocides.

“The most dangerous part in the shale frack is the biocide,” said Steve Mueller, chief executive officer at Southwestern Energy Co, the biggest producer in the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas. “That’s the number-one thing the industry is trying to find a way around.” Biocides are employed because the watery fluids used to fracture rocks heat up when they’re pumped into the ground at high speed, causing bacteria and mold to multiply, Mueller said. The bacteria grow, inhibiting the flow of gas. “You basically get a black slime in your lines,” he said in an interview. “It just becomes a black ooze of this bacteria that grew very quickly.” Halliburton and Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield contractors, are among companies seeking biocide substitutes. Houston-based Halliburton said that it’s testing a process using ultraviolet light to kill bacteria in fracking fluid.

Schlumberger, based in Houston and Paris, spoke with Southwestern about testing a biocide that would last only a few hours before becoming nontoxic, Mueller said. “We have not tested it,” he said. “We only know they’re working on it.” Schlumberger spokeswoman Mary Jo Caliandro, who confirmed the company is testing new technology, declined to comment on any advance before it’s “commercial”. Houston-based Southwestern has tested an ultrasonic technique that moves water faster than the speed of sound through a cone-shaped vortex to kill bacteria before the fluid is sent down the well, Mueller said.

Chemicals, including biocides such as chlorine, make up less than 1 percent of fracking fluids. The rest is water and sand. Companies haven’t identified the chemicals they use, citing competitive reasons. Advocacy organisations such as the Environmental Working Group in Washington have called for lawmakers to require energy companies to disclose the chemicals. “I think the industry’s going to have to be more transparent,” Steven Farris, CEO at Houston-based Apache Corp, the biggest independent US oil producer by market value, said at the Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans.

Gas producers are realising they have to find ways to clean and recycle the water used in hydraulic fracturing, said George P Mitchell, the Houston billionaire who pioneered development of shale gas in the Barnett formation of North Texas. “I think a lot of action is going on to get that done,” Mitchell said. “It’s not an insurmountable task.”"

Early in our history it didn't make any difference how we viewed our environment. We could change it, and if we didn't like what we did to it, we could move and natural processes would soon obliterate whatever we had done. Over the years, models of our relationship to the environment have been based on religious views, with the world provided for us to dominate and subdue as described in Genesis, and philosophical views, seeing wisdom and virtue in nature as described by Thoreau.

But by far our most prevalent view of nature derives from a rudimentary human desire for more. This is the basis of the economic model that currently directs our relationships with one another and with our environment. It has produced stupendous human population growth and dramatic, deleterious effects on nature. Recognizing these effects, efforts have been marshaled to change the self-serving economic model with notions of Earth "stewardship," eloquently advanced decades ago by then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and, most recently, to infiltrate the economic model with "ecosystem services" by assigning monetary values to functions performed by the Earth that are beneficial to people. All of these views are fundamentally and dangerously flawed, because all are anthropocentric. They begin and end with humans. This isn't the way the Earth works.

The Earth has its own set of rules, solidly grounded in laws of physics and chemistry and emergent principles of geology and biology. Unlike our economic model, these are not artificial constructs. They are real, and they govern. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, 100-year floods, massive wildfires and disease epidemics are dramatic examples of parts of nature, neither all service nor all harm, creating and destroying, and governed by rules that are indifferent to humans. Our anthropocentric economic model for interacting with the world ignores and is proving to be incompatible with Earth's rules, and is therefore on a direct collision course with them.

To achieve a more accurate model of our relation to nature, we need to see ourselves as part of nature, governed by nature (not economics), beholden to nature for ecosystem services and subject to nature's disturbances. We need to view our existence in nature as dependent on numerous functions we are unable to perform ourselves, and without which we couldn't survive. And we need to recognize that we now have the power and the reckless inclination, driven by shortsighted anthropocentrism, to disrupt these functions to the degree that Earth will become uninhabitable for us. In the end, the physical, chemical and biological rules of Earth will certainly win, and we will either be on the winning side or we will be vanquished. These are the only choices.

Our anthropocentric economic model needs to be reconceived, incorporating Earth's rules, to become an Earth-centered, "terracentric" model. Stewardship needs to progress from a condescending view of humans tending their "garden" to an effort to become part of Earth without disrupting its vital functions. Ecosystem services need to advance from recognition of services to humans to recognition of services to our planet. We need to find ways to avoid changing Earth in irreversible directions. We need to soberly evaluate anthropocentric economics' sacred cow, growth, in light of sustainability. And we need to think beyond our own brief lifetimes. Most important, in the new terracentric model, we need to acknowledge that there is nothing more important than preserving the viability of planet Earth. Nothing.

Using human ecologist Garrett Hardin's metaphor, Earth is our only "lifeboat" in a sea of empty, cold blackness. Our lives, and those of other organisms, are allowed in this boat only because of a quasi-steady environmental state created by a unique balance of physical, chemical and biological conditions and processes governed by Earth's rules. The central task of ecology is to understand these conditions, processes and rules and thereby understand the qualities and dimensions of this steady state.

Unfortunately, before ecology has reached this understanding, humans are testing this steady state's robustness with anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry that cause changes in radiation through the atmosphere, fundamental changes in ocean chemistry and changes in the whole planet's energy budget -- its balance of energy in and energy out. We are testing it with pervasive, potentially irreversible, long-term pollution of Earth's fresh and salt water, using a vast assortment of man-made chemicals that often possess biologically hazardous and ecologically unpredictable properties. We are testing it with relentless, massive, wholesale conversions of ecosystems, channeling their products exclusively into our own limitless consumption. And we are testing it with the global spread of biological species, causing a complex, hugely damaging homogenization of Earth's biota.

Recent measurements of unprecedented, directional changes in the vital signs of Earth suggest that we may have already staved in our lifeboat's hull, causing changes beyond the ability of Earth's biogeochemical forces to maintain balance. The quasi-steady state that makes our lives possible may be disappearing before our eyes. We are in direct conflict with Earth's rules.

The anthropocentric economic model is fundamentally incapable of providing more than temporary fixes for our massive environmental problems. Reliance on this invalid, incompetent model underlies the recent struggles of world leaders in Copenhagen and Washington to make significant progress in solving global environmental problems. Replacement of this failed model with an economic model that recognizes Earth's rules and embraces terracentricity as its essential focus is the primary step necessary to bring reality into our collective thinking and behavior, and provide an accurate conceptual basis for the hard decisions ahead that will determine the fate of life on our planet.

Bruce E. Mahall is a professor of ecology at UC Santa Barbara. F. Herbert Bormann, a professor emeritus at Yale University, is one of the founders of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study."

The practice of flushing unwanted, unused or expired medication into the sewer system has created environmental concerns about our lakes and rivers and the safety of our drinking water. Recent studies have found that municipal treatment systems don’t always remove all of the drugs from wastewater and they end up in our drinking water.You may be taking a mini-dose of birth control pills, Valium and blood pressure medication with each glass of tap water.

Some estimate 250 million pounds of medicines are flushed down the toilet every year. According to a 2008 Associated Press investigation, 46 million Americans drink water with traces of medicine in it.

Testing by the U.S. Geological Service found prescription drugs in 139 streams in 30 states, with 80 percent of the streams containing one or more.

In addition, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “The improper disposal of unused medications by flushing them or pouring them down the drain may be harmful to fish, wildlife and their habitats.” Fish and wild animals have been shown to have hormone and infection problems caused by the pollution from medicine.

While most agree that the amount of drugs in the water is extremely low, it’s important to stop the flow."

Others start to worry that we pollute by washing off residue pharmaceuticals when we take a shower.

"As you scrub off dirt, you also wipe off medicines from your skin and pharmaceuticals excreted in sweat, according to a new study. Those chemicals pass through the sewage system and might even end up in our drinking water. "We are raising an alarm in that pharmaceuticals are not meant to be in our water," said Ilene Ruhoy, director of the Institute for Environmental Medicine at the Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Henderson, Nev. She presented her work this week (end of March 2010) at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco.

Their research revealed that human skin fails to absorb much of the medicine that is applied topically, such as antibiotic ointments and steroid creams. Showers, baths and laundry wash those drugs directly into the sewage system. Chemically, these compounds often remain whole, unlike the broken-down versions in feces and urine. The scientists also found that a significant percentage of the medicine we swallow end up coming out in our sweat. Those chemicals go down the drain, too.

It's not yet clear how pharmaceutical residues in the environment will affect the health of animals or people, especially because concentrations for now are low. Still, tiny doses can add up after years and years of exposure. It's a phenomenon that scientists have become increasingly worried about. "There's potential for an incredible number of compounds to be entering the environment, and we don't really know what mixtures of those chemicals can do, either individually or together," said Michael Fulton, an environmental toxicologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Charleston, S.C."

The provincial government is vowing to minimize animal deaths at oilsands operations as documents show a variety of wildlife, including dozens of black bears, deer and red foxes, have been killed. The data, released through a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy request by Edmonton-area ecologist Kevin Timoney, examines three oilpatch giants over an eight-year period. At least 164 animals were killed in the Syncrude, Suncor and Shell Canada's Albian Sands operations, based on information given to Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

The information doesn't include specific causes of death, though it listed possible reasons, including euthanasia of problem wildlife, drowning or oiling from tailings, vehicle crashes and electrocution.Oilsands giant Syncrude is currently on trial, charged by both the federal and provincial governments with failing to prevent waterfowl from landing on a toxic tailing pond.The documents he obtained show that 27 black bears, 31 foxes, 21 coyotes and dozens of deer were killed, along with moose, muskrats, beavers, voles, martens, wolves and bats. The 164 animals killed are at three oilsands companies, said Mike Hudema of Greenpeace.

Further, the figures are based on the deaths actually observed by workers, who must then forward the information to their company to be reported to the government. "These numbers aren't based on a widespread scientific study or any research done in a methodical way," Hudema said, suggesting the "true death toll is definitely much higher." The "self-policing" system that allows industry to report on itself is flawed, Hudema said."

"Environmental groups launched a complaint against Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement Wednesday(April 14th, 2010), saying the country has failed to enforce anti-pollution rules governing its vast oil sands.

"In the latest move in a long-running campaign to highlight the impact of oil sands development, the submission by Environmental Defense Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council and three citizens charges that toxic tailings ponds are being allowed to leak and contaminate ground water.

The ponds store residual oil, heavy metals and other byproducts of oil sands processing in the western province of Alberta. They are subject to environmental provisions under the federal Fisheries Act, the groups said."

It seems it all started when "bird cannons" could not be deployed in time because of a snowstorm:

"Syncrude's Aurora tailings pond violates a federal law designed to protect migratory birds, an Environment Canada officer told provincial court Tuesday (March 9th) during the oilsands giant's trial for 1,600 waterfowl deaths. Kristopher Dirks said that until this case, no charges have been pursued against Syncrude for the handful of reported waterfowl deaths that occurred on its tailings ponds every year for the past 20 years. He said this was because bird deterrents on the ponds showed the company was taking action to keep the birds away.

That changed, however, after an incident April 28, 2008, that saw hundreds of waterfowl land on the giant toxic tailings pond near Fort McMurray. White (Syncrude lawyer Robert White) has previously said outside court that the aftermath of the snowstorm impeded the company's ability to deploy all of its noise cannons. He said the temperature spike caused the snow to melt, causing the sand on the edges of the tailings pond to become soggy and difficult to navigate, meaning the company could not complete the deployment of its bird deterrents."

New York State has not allowed natural gas drilling yet. But radioactive waste from the industry is being dumped in the Southern Tier. Action News reporter Reed Buterbaugh takes us to Chemung County where neighbors are outraged.

Up to 2,000 tons a week of waste from natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania is deposited at the Chemung County landfill in New York. "People have got to wake up. I have grandchildren that I'm concerned with about what's happening to the water in my area," said Linda Stevens of Lowman. "Why does Chemung County want stuff that Pennsylvania doesn't want?" said Irvin Mauer from the Town of Veteran.

On Monday, the county legislature is expected to allow Casella Waste, which operates the site, to triple its intake.

Environmental groups held this rally to protest taking in the out of state waste. "They've never investigated the nature of the cuttings themselves," said Jack Ossont, from the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes.

New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation is deliberating on whether to allow gas drilling into the Marcellus Shale.

"A lot of activists around this issue were assuming the importation of waste would wait until that is finally issued," said Ossont. "If we start dumping radioactive waste in an area near the river and it leaks into the river it's going to affect the whole ecosystem," said Earl Robinson, Vice President for Residents for Preservation.

The landfill's operators say that it's secure and that any run off into the Chemung River is not a possibility. They add that the increased workload at the site was part of the original plans. "We test groundwater constantly here and there's no contamination," said Larry Shilling, District Manager for Casella Waste. "This is not harmfully radioactive." Casella commissioned an independent study to examine if runoff was occurring. It will release the results in the next two weeks.

The Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes is trying to sway Chemung County legislators to vote against the measure Monday. If they're unsuccessful, it plans on taking legal action against the county to stop it from importing natural gas waste.""

Several First Nations from British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago have embarked on a court battle against the federal and provincial governments over fish farms. The bands were in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking to certify a class-action lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments.

The legal battle comes after decades of inaction, said First Nations spokesman Chief Bob Chamberlin. Natives in the archipelago, on the west side of the Queen Charlotte Strait on the central coast of B.C., have long worried about the environmental impacts of fish farms. They fear the effects of the chemicals used on the farms and that the farmed fish will spread disease to the almost 230 different wild salmon stocks native to the region.

"We've pounded our head against the wall for years," Chamberlin said of the frustration in getting both governments to listen to their concerns.The court fight could last a decade, but he said the bands weren't getting any action through other avenues. "I don't think the fish can wait that long. That's why we've chosen the class-action route to get it in front of the courts as quickly as possible."

But even before the class-action certification process began Tuesday, a lawyer for the federal government challenged the scientific research presented by the First Nations in an attempt to pre-empt any further hearings."This will be about a battle of experts," Camp told the court. The hearing is expected to last nine days.

There are more than two dozen aquaculture sites in the ocean around the Broughton area and almost 230 different populations of wild salmon swim past the farms on their way to 59 rivers in B.C.

Chamberlin said they're especially concerned about what's being poured into the environment by these farms. A chemical called Slice is used to kill sea lice on the farmed fish, antibiotics are fed to the fish, and then there's the food and feces that also goes into the water shared with wild stock."Tonnes and tonnes of it. It's not some innocuous little amount, and that's getting introduced into our environment," Chamberlin said. "It's an off-loading of the responsibilities that these companies have."

Opponents of fish farms have had some success in the courts in their long fight against the industry.The B.C. Supreme Court ruled last year the federal government, not the province, should regulate fish farms because it had constitutional powers over the ocean.But unlike B.C.'s forestry, mining and fishing industries, Chamberlin said fish farming hasn't changed with the times, and continues to pollute B.C.'s waters. "If they moved to closed containment, they would silence 99 per cent of the critics. Why is it they won't do it," he asked.

Last last year the federal government gave a B.C. Supreme Court judge unlimited powers to find out why the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery collapsed in 2009."

"Natives in two villages have won a battle against the world's largest zinc mine over a permit they said would have polluted a fish stream that provides food and drinking water. The Native villages of Kivalina and Point Hope challenged the Red Dog Mine's new water-pollution-discharge permit, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn features of the permit of concern to the villagers. The federal permit would have allowed more cyanide, zinc, selenium, lead and total dissolved solids into the Wulik River than is currently allowed, villagers said.

Red Dog has struggled with its water discharges since starting up two decades ago. The mine has routinely violated some criteria within its federal water-pollution-discharge permit, resulting in fines and lawsuits. The new permit would legalize the discharges that have been problematic. The Native villages say it's illegal for the EPA to relax the mine's previous permit."

I'm the second generation of my family that lives in Richelieu, Quebec, in Canada. My family tree, both from my mother's and my father's side, has its roots in Quebec since the beginning of the 1600s: my ancestors crossed the ocean from France, leaving Perche and Normandy behind them. Both French AND English are my mother tongues: I learned to talk in both languages when I was a baby, and both my parents were perfectly bilingual too.